Wednesday, 27 January 2016

Roland 303 acid with a Korg Volca drum

Testing out the modified Korg Volca Drum.
We modified the snare and added Midi out.

Sounds great.
Everything I play the TB-303 I marvel at the filter. It's really what makes this instrument so special.
It is described as a ‑24dB/octave filter diode ladder (built with transistors) but it is actually made up of four ‑6dB/octave stages
connected one after another. The sound cascades from one stage to the next producing
a rounding‑off of the initial filter slope. The sound takes a bit longer to travel to the last stage which makes it sound brighter.

The unusual decision to build the diode ladder with transistors adds to its unique sound. Roland chose to use transistors wired up as diodes.